The No. 5 UC Irvine Men’s Volleyball team (10-0) faced off against the Vanguard University Lions (3-5, 0-2), taking home their 10th win in a row in Costa Mesa, Calif. on the Bill & Shirley Reynolds Court, on Feb. 4.
To start off the first set, Anteaters senior opposite William D’Arcy, sophomore middle blocker Micah Goss, freshman outside hitter Andrej Jokanovic, junior opposite/outside hitter Trevor Clark, junior opposite Andon Kiriakou and redshirt freshman setter/opposite Cameron Kosty took to the court.
Anteater Kosty gave the first serve of the set and got an ace, earning UC Irvine the first point of the game.
This was followed by another Anteater point from Jokanovic with a successful block, but in the following point, Kosty had a net serve that gave the Lions a point.
Quickly, the game progressed where both teams earned several points until the Anteaters pulled ahead when the Lions had two out-of-bounds hits in a row that gave UCI a four-point lead at 7-3.
UC Irvine stayed in the lead for a little while longer until Vanguard University tied it up at 9-9 with four kills in a row by Lions senior outside hitter Cole Oliver, junior outside hitter Grand Veldman and sophomore opposite/outside hitter Logan Freemon.
With the Lions in the lead, Anteater Goss took the opportunity to shift the score in UC Irvine’s favor with two back-to-back perfect aces that were followed by a kill from Anteater Clark, tying up the game.
Vanguard University had the next lead, but it was short-lived, as the ‘Eaters jumped in with several kills by Clark and D’Arcy.
After a few more ties in the set, the Anteaters took the lead and claimed the win for the first set at 25-23 despite the Lions’ continuous effort to catch up.
The first point of the second set went to the Lions due to a UC Irvine attack error. However, this was followed by a Vanguard service error, which resulted in a tie.
Succeeding the initial tie, the Lions made four kills and received two points for UC Irvine errors thus placing them three points ahead 7-4.
The difference between the two teams remained small as the set continued with four consecutive ties that brought the score to 16-16.
For the rest of the set the difference stayed within two points, although the Anteaters fell short 26-24 as Lion junior outside hitter Grant Veldman got a kill that was followed by an ace from Lion Oliver.
The Anteaters opened the third set with three points in a row, which gave them an early advantage as the teams were tied at one set win each.
Already down, the Lions finally earned themselves a point from a kill by freshman middle blocker Matthew Pimentel and got a second point from a kill by Veldman.
The two-point lead the Anteaters had at this time shortly became a four-point lead as two different Lions players had a service error in a row.
UC Irvine claimed four more points, two from errors and two from successful kills, while Vanguard claimed five more points with three kills and two errors.
Vanguard University was then unable to score points due to three errors made in a row that gave UC Irvine a six-point lead at 13-7.
Struggling to take the lead, the Lions claimed six more points in the set, but the Anteaters ended it with seven kills, four Lion error points and an ace by Jokanovic.
The Anteaters took home the win of the third set 25-13, giving them the advantage going into the fourth.
This final set of the game started with Vanguard up by one point, which was shortly ended when UC Irvine’s D’Arcy got a kill and tied up the game at 1-1.
Both teams earned another point each which UC Irvine followed with five points in a row, restricting the Lions from gaining the lead as they were up 7-2.
The Lions claimed four more points, which then resulted in a pause as the Anteaters were already up by three and also managed to swoop in with four additional points in a row.
Up by eight points, the Anteaters held their lead, scoring back every time the Lions scored to keep their largest lead of the game yet, 16-8.
Only able to get eight more points in the set, the Lions fell short as the Anteaters quickly claimed victory at 25-16 to conclude the set.
With three out of four set wins, UC Irvine dominated the game 3-1, securing their tenth win in a row and remaining undefeated.
UC Irvine took on Concordia University Irvine on Feb. 6 in Irvine, Calif., aspiring to extend their steady winning streak.
Cayley Mazer is a Sports Intern for the winter 2026 quarter. She can be reached at cmazer@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor and Joshua Gonzales